tavola trattoria

new lunchtime favorite. my wife and i had a rare treat to meet for lunch today. we ended up attavolaand wow are we glad we did. based on the server's recommendation i ordered the saltimbocca, chicken cutlet. omg! what incredible flavor. it came with mushroom ravioli. we both enjoyed the entire dish. i ended up thinking that sauteed spinach would add that extra punch and they offered to make some on the spot. this is one of the best dishesi've had in a long time. i travel extensively for work and eat all over the country.tavolais now one of my favorites. in fact we like it so much that we made reservations for our data night saturday. my wife had the chop chop salad and loved that. there is a lot of chicken in the salad and the dressing really is light and complements the flavor well. i highly recommendtavolatrattoria.

4 italian places in nw arkansas i care for. pesto cafe,tavolatrattoria, joes, or johnny carino's! excellent food each time!!

stopped in for lunch while on business.  everything on the menu sounded amazing but the server directed me to the orrecchiette pasta and it was definitely a good choice.  the bread and marinara brought prior to your meal is fabulous.  the table next to us had some of the pizzas which i'd love to have on my next visit although i don't think any menu item would be less than superb.  i would certainly recommendtavolatrattoria to anyone in the bentonville area looking for great italian food.

we would givetavola4.5 stars if we could, as it's as close to perfect as anyone would want.  my wife and i had our wedding reception there and they were more than accommodating.  they bent over backwards to make sure we were happy and that our guest were well fed and satisfied.  the food was great and we didn't have any complaints about the service or venue.  they let us decorate as we wished and made us feel like we were the only customers that mattered.  we've only heard good things from all of our guests.  thanks verina!

a fine italian dinning experience in a modern upscale yet casual environment. i liketavolatrattoria’s mix of traditional italian dishes with fresh takes on the same. i appreciate the classic crooners like sinatra and martin playing, that’s italian! the service has been very good at various times and days. the food is perfectly prepared thou everyone has a different opinion on what italian food should be. for me the fresh baked bread, fresh pasta and seasonings are spot on thou i personally like a bit more garlic and basil. with so many great restaurants on or near the square it’s hard to pick a favorite, buttavolais certainly in the running.

this rating is not based on the quality of tavola's food, they have the best italian food in bentonville. the quality of service is what makes dining attavolaundesirable.

it is due to these series of unfortunate events that i must givetavolatrattoria a one star rating. the entire evening was slightly unorganized and it left us baffled and frustrated. it was just messy and i do not recommend this restaurant for group events. period.

here was our experience…

1. reservations for a large room upstairs were made weeks prior to the event as discussed between our hostess and the owner. good.

2. follow up phone call was made days prior to the event to confirm. things were confirmed. good.

3. come the day of the event….no reservations were found on the guest list. thus, many of us stood waiting around for almost an hour outside while the manager and his team figured out what to do. we were later informed they had put us down for the following evening. going downhill already.

4. thankfully (and i appreciate this very much) an hour later, they were able to accommodate us in a private party room upstairs (the wrong room) but at our request, they moved us over to the correct room.

5. we had one server for a large group of 25. she was a workhorse and, considering the situation, she did the best she could

6. we were served family style with 3 main entrees. there was no salad, no bread, no soup – just 3 types of entrees and drinks. now, this may have been the agreement between the hostess and the owner, but from what i recall, bread is usually free. not to mention, the food was cold. i understand we were a 25 top, but you did not have to prepare 25 separate dishes. we were 9 platters in family style.

7. afterwards, we each received our bill of $27 + whatever drinks we got. our hostess was then charged for gratuity of the entire group. our understanding of automatic gratuity charge is that restaurants cannot do auto-tips due to an irs law that passed a few years ago. upon further research, restaurants will have this large group automatic gratuity be taxed thus many restaurants have opted out of the auto-charge. however, if that was the case, our tip should have been printed on the tab by the register and not hand-written like it was.

to any server/restaurant: if you believe you did a good job serving, you should expect to receive what deserve in tips. perhaps they felt we would not tip you well because of our earlier situation or our ethic background…i don’t know. but i will say that our server received more than what they had initially auto-charged us for.

although our evening ended with a little more conversation with the manager than we had expected or would have liked, the party was over and the restaurant got their business. thank you, manager and server for being as professional as you could. i am sorry the manager and the server had to be the ones to correct the error and “deal” with our unexpected group, but we got the short-end of the stick as we still had to pay up $$$ for an evening that should have been pristine and planned well.

to the owner: the customer should never have to be penalized for an error on your part.

ratatouille is divine - awesome place.tavolais a gem just off the main square. the decor is simple with sealed cement floors, heavy wood tables, rattan-backed chairs and red booths. they have four unique dinning areas. upfront is a small room that can be curtained off to serve a group or support open seating. the main seating area has two rows of booths and tables down the middle of the restaurant. the back-side room has wine racks set up to create a wine room that can seat 15-25 or so people. the bar is at the back of the room. they also have an upstairs room that can be rented for a fee. the kitchen prep area is exposed to the restaurant. it would be nice if they could put up some type of decor that blocks out the kitchen action and craziness that goes on to support a packed restaurant.

service was polite, but a little too structured. it did not detract from the great experience. she walked us through the menu and the special of the day. we especially liked the feedback on ratatouille. we were reluctant to order an all veggie dish, but our server said it was divine. she was correct. the goat cheese was so smooth and pulled the whole dish together. i was shocked it was the highlight of the night. the prosciutto wrapped asparagus was a top hit as was desiree's cake. soaking the cake in mascarpone cream and drizzling it with creamed nutella was awesome. huge thumbs up totavolatrattoria. i highly recommend it.

good food but...... drove into town late and checked into 21c. we come up here a lot and always wanted to trytavolatrattoria. we checked with the restaurant and they said they served until 10. we arrived at 9:30. we placed our wine and food order fairly quickly as we were hungry. the food came and we were happy with the quality and taste. my meatballs were awesome. about when the food came out around 9:50 most of the tables had left but we had just started eating. all the staff started cleaning up, sweeping, cleaning silver ware, making a ton of noise, training a new bus boy, etc. etc. they paid zero attention to us and our enjoyment of the atmosphere and food. it was extremely annoying. we were right across from the silver ware station and a girl started wiping down a bunch of silver ware and throwing it into the holding trays. no attention paid to us or being somewhat quiet about it. first of all that station should not be in the middle of the restaurant next to tables. then a girl starts sweeping a mat/rug that was right across from our table. kept at it for about 5 minutes and it simply was not a big mat. we were tired and really just wanted to eat and not make any comments. but the waitress came by and i made a comment that it was hard to enjoy our food when it appeared the staff had no concern for our experience. to her credit she immediately went and got the manager. she came out and apologized. didn't offer to comp any of our food, which would have been a nice gesture even if it was just a glass of wine. she immediately went to the back part of the restaurant without talking to anyone. then immediately after she left a young man started at the silver ware area again. unbelievable. their staff needs to be trained and policy needs to be implemented. they were a young staff and all they wanted to do was get off work. if they don't need our business and will not show us respect and appreciation we simply will not go back. i am also posting this on my arkansas food blog, eallittlerock.com it is unfortunate that this happened as we really did enjoy the food. not sure if we will go back though, it was that bad.

the italian representative in this new wave happens to be next door to the latter, the airy and distinctivetavolatrattoria. opened in 2011 by the folks that brought the esteemed table mesa modern latin restaurant to the bentonville square in 2008, tavola's sleek lines and even sleeker dishes are respectable upscale dining.  honestly, here's your date night right here. carl garrett's second venture offers a new take on traditional italian classics, and he's dubbed the efforts "modern italian cuisine." this week, while michael roberts with  eat arkansas  and the arkansas times delves into great italian food in central arkansas, i’ll be looking outside the are

in bentonville visiting the museum and wanted to eat local fare.tavolawas fantastic and cami was great! best italian we have had in a very long time.

for dinner, our group walked a couple of blocks down totavolafor italian fare. i'd been there before on a solo dining trip, and both times i loved the food. i indulged in the house sangria as we waited for our table. i had to stick to my guns and order papparedelle bolognese. the pasta is fresh and the sauce is the bomb. in fact, my coworker ate the extra sauce off my plate. that. good. the menu itself is extensive, so there's truly something for everyone. you can even get some french fare!

unfortunate. our experience attavolawas probably one of the worst dining experiences in my life. that experience started with the noise. it was so incredably loud inside this restaurant that i could not have a normal conversation with my date. we were forced to communicate using a combination of lip reading, yelling, and the occasional hand signal.

the service started out well. our server arrived at our table promptly after we were seated and brought us drinks and bread. i must admit, one of the positives about this evening was the red sauce that was served with this bread. it was delicious.

next was the ordering and this is where the train fell off the tracks, so to speak. my date ordered a pizza and i would have the special, which was a grilled swordfish on a bed of mushroom ravioli with a white cream sauce. then we waited.......for the next hour and a half to get our meal. we were told several times our food was next out of the kitchen and eventually we did get our food.

my date got her pizza and i got a grilled fish on a bed of mashed potatoes with a side of green beans. our waitress was no where to be found so i accepted the dish that was in front of me and we ate. my dish was average at best but my date enjoyed her pizza. as we were finishing our meal the server came to check on us and i expressed my confusion with my order. the manager came over to clear up the confusion. as it turns out, the dish that was describe to me by the server was not being served that night. what i was eating was indeed the special.

because our experience was not the best, management offered to buy us some ice cream in hopes that we would overlook the errors they commited. we declined the offer and then turned over $100 for our meal.

needless to say, we will not be going back to tavola.

we hosted the rehearsal dinner for our son's wedding attavolaand it was wonderful. jan, worked with me on the menu choices which were all very good. the service for the evening was amazing. they took care of all the little things like turning down the music during the toasts. the setting was beautiful ( i did rent white linens and decorate with beautiful flowers) but i could not have asked for a better experience. they have a balcony that overlooks the bentonville square which made for a nice photo op. i highly recommendtavolafor any special events you may have

wanted to like it. because i'm a big fan of table mesa and i've never eaten anything there i haven't liked i wish our experience attavolatrattoria had been different.

the first thing we noticed was the wall of sound that hit us when we walked in the door. industrial may be all the rage in decor, but it bounces and amplifies sound. we should have stayed outside at a street side table where it was quieter. our waiter was prompt and very courteous.

we ordered a lemonade and a limeade and our waiter left thinly slice rosemary foccacia bread with a chunky tomato sauce. both bread and sauce were good. our drinks however crossed over the line of pleasantly tart and were quite sour. after a few sips we abandoned them for the water.

i really wasn't in the mood for a heavy meal with meat, but there were no pasta sides and so we both ordered a meat dish with a pasta side. i planned to let my husband eat most of my meat. my order came and they had substituted the side without giving me the option of ordering a different item, without apology or any indication at all that it had been made. i ended up eating just the fresh green beans which were covered in a fruit sauce from the meat. now i'm not five anymore so i don't have to have my food not touch, but it really wasn't a good combination. we had the ribs put in a to go box for my husband's lunch the next day. and he did like them.

honestly, that has to be the most expensive plate of fruit sauce covered green beans i have ever eaten. my husband said his chicken parmigiania was good, but nothing outstanding. we didn't even want to risk dessert. i ended up going home and nibbling on a clif bar.

next wedding anniversary i think we'll go down to vetro 1925 which is a favorite of ours and has italian food and wine at the level you find in major metropolitan cities.